Today’s consumers are more concerned about the environment than ever and focus on buying sustainable products as a result. Therefore, major brands must make moves to respond to climate change. Doing so improves their standing in the eyes of the public and also ensures they do their part to care for the planet.
Some of their responses have been pretty good, several have been bad and a few have been downright ugly. You must know where big businesses stand so you can decide if you want to support them or spend your dollars elsewhere. Here are five ways big companies are taking action on climate change — for better or worse.
1. Accepting Responsibility
Being an agent of change starts with accepting responsibility. Over the last four decades, about 100 companies have contributed over 70% of all the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The greatest offenders have been in the energy sector, with BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell contributing 7% of global emissions on their own.
These statistics show that while consumer choices matter, it’s the behavior of large companies that most urgently needs to change to address the climate crisis. Despite this reality, many brands insist on leaving the ball in the consumer’s court. Some are silent on the subject, while others present solutions that make their customers take responsibility and make sacrifices. If they introduce “greener” alternatives, these are often at a higher price point than their standard offerings. These companies continue harmful production practices, expecting people concerned about sustainability to pay a premium.
Some large brands recognize their outsized impact on the environment and commit to taking positive action. For example, the container logistics company Maersk became the first to have its science-based targets for carbon neutrality validated by The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Maersk has accepted responsibility for taking action to address climate change and aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.
Outdoor clothing and gear manufacturer Patagonia is another positive example of taking responsibility in combating climate change. Patagonia donated 98% of its shares to Holdfast Collective, an environmental nonprofit. This move aimed to ensure the company’s profits would promote sustainability and fight climate change.
2. Committing to Transparency
Transparency goes hand in hand with responsibility. Large public companies must share accurate information about their environmental impact. This is essential for stakeholders, from individual consumers and local communities to national governments and international bodies, to hold brands accountable for their actions. Transparency is also vital for businesses to hold themselves accountable and track progress toward real sustainability goals.
You’ve probably heard about the problem of greenwashing among big brands. Greenwashing is the opposite of transparency about environmental impacts. Brands greenwash by misleading the public to believe they are more sustainable than they really are. This can happen in several ways, including:
- Empty claims: Claiming to be on the way to net-zero emissions without having an actionable and effective plan
- Undefined terms: Using “green,” “eco-friendly” or other terms without regulated definitions to create a false impression of sustainability
- Staying vague: Choosing broad terms to conceal specific facts about operations or materials that may not be sustainable
- Exaggerating achievements: Making a minor improvement or meeting a minimum standard and implying a much greater positive impact
- Misdirecting attention: Claiming to be sustainable by avoiding a practice that is irrelevant to the company’s products in any case
- Hiding context: Highlighting sustainable features of a product while ignoring environmental harm the company causes in other ways
High-profile greenwashing allegations have followed companies like Coca-Cola and Nestle in recent years. Both companies publicly set targets to make 100% of their packaging recyclable by 2025, although some deadlines have been moved to 2030. However, the European Consumer Organization, with the backing of major environmental groups, argued that these claims are misleading. Their objection is that a 100% recycling rate is not possible with the plastic bottles these companies use, and producing and using plastic bottles can still harm the planet, even if it’s recycled.
The brands that have the most positive impact in addressing climate change will have to follow a different path — one of transparency and accountability. One way to do this is by pursuing B Corp certification. This independent certification verifies that a company is meeting high standards for accountability and transparency in its environmental and social impact. The main requirements to achieve this status are:
- Demonstrating a high score for social and environmental performance based on an impact assessment.
- Committing to accountability by changing the corporate structure to be answerable to all stakeholders rather than only investors.
- Showing transparency by making accurate information about their environmental and social performance publicly available without hiding anything.
3. Embracing Recyclable Materials and Packaging
Despite greenwashing claims that exaggerate the benefits of some major brands’ recycling commitments, recycled materials and packaging are important for sustainability. Benefits of using recyclable materials include:
- Conserving scarce natural resources.
- Limiting carbon emissions during production.
- Promoting energy efficiency.
- Reducing waste and pollution.
Recyclable materials include many metals, cardboard and some plastics. A positive example of making a difference by committing to recycled items comes from playground equipment manufacturer Little Tikes Commercial. This brand makes its components from recyclable materials like:
- 100% recyclable rotomolded plastics and recycling all trim waste.
- 100% recyclable steel tubing with 25% postconsumer recycled material.
- 100% recyclable aluminum post clamps with 65% postconsumer and 30% preconsumer recycled material.
- 100% recyclable aluminum sand castings with 50% postconsumer and 40% preconsumer recycled material.
- 100% recyclable sheet plastic, recycling all production cutouts and fall-offs.
- 100% recyclable cardboard packaging with 66% postconsumer and 5% preconsumer recycled material.
While recyclable materials are gaining ground, many big brands still produce excessive waste. For example, just 20 companies are the source of over half the world’s discarded single-use plastic. ExxonMobil, Dow and China’s Sinopec top this list.
Of course, the big brands that buy and use these plastics are also at fault for plastic pollution. Despite its stated targets for recyclable materials, Coca-Cola remains the No. 1 plastic polluter in the world. These companies are largely responsible for the trillions of pieces of plastic in the oceans.
4. Managing Pollution and Emissions
Another vital area of environmental responsibility for big brands is how they manage pollution and emissions. Without proper protections, company operations can pollute the environment in various ways, including:
- Air pollution: Factories, vehicles and machines emit harmful gases and particulates into the air. This contributes to global warming, health issues for humans and animals, and other environmental consequences like acid rain.
- Water pollution: Industrial waste and runoff, including poisonous chemicals, contaminate water sources. This devastates ecosystems and food chains.
- Soil pollution: Chemicals, plastics and other industrial waste products impact soil fertility. This threatens human food security and can cause lasting ecological damage.
- Noise pollution: Machinery and transportation cause excessive, unnatural noise. This disrupts animal behavior and may lead to higher stress levels and hearing loss in humans.
- Light pollution: Industrial and urban areas generate excessive artificial light. Aside from hindering stargazing, this interferes with human and animal sleep patterns, causing serious health issues.
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Many large companies in sectors like energy, agriculture, transport and textiles are massive polluters. Companies like these contaminate the atmosphere with destructive consequences for climate change, though this pollution often goes unnoticed. Cities covered in a thick smog blanket are a daily reminder of this problem, though only a fraction of the harm being caused is visible.
Pollution has become a fact of life, blending into the background as the status quo continues. A few highly publicized incidents get exceptional attention. One of these was the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. A BP oil rig exploded and collapsed in the Gulf of Mexico, spilling almost 780 million liters of oil over nearly three months. BP’s cleanup effort only managed to recover or disperse about a third of that oil. Up to a million seabirds died as a direct result of this spill.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster has raised serious questions about reliance on hazardous fossil fuels, but more directly about how big energy brands manage their operations. Taking proper precautions and maintaining equipment is essential for reducing the risks of tragedies like these in the future.
While Deepwater Horizon has been the worst oil spill fiasco of the 21st century, it was far from being an isolated incident. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) responds to over 150 oil spills a year, most of which get no major media attention. Despite the frequency of these accidents, runoff from cities and vehicles is responsible for even more oil in the oceans than spills are, meaning companies must pay close attention to managing pollution from land-based operations as well. Measures big brands can take to reduce their impact on climate change through pollution include:
- Choosing factory sites carefully to limit their impact on vulnerable ecosystems.
- Powering operations with clean, renewable energy like solar and wind.
- Analyzing waste to understand the main causes and consequences.
- Upgrading and maintaining equipment to decrease waste.
- Treating hazardous waste to make it less environmentally harmful.
- Performing regular environmental impact assessments for facilities and projects.
- Supporting regulations that safeguard the environment.
- Funding cleanups in areas where potentially polluting operations happen.
- Encouraging alternative transportation for employees and operations.
- Using more eco-friendly materials for production.
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5. Influencing Policy
You’re aware of some of the ways big brands directly impact climate change. However, they also affect the environment through their influence on another major player — the government.
Many voters are concerned with moving government policy in a more environmentally friendly direction. However, large corporations can impact environmental policy in ways that go far beyond the ballot box, including:
- Lobbying: Large companies hire lobbyists who meet with lawmakers and officials to influence policy. Often, the aim is to secure policies that permit environmentally harmful practices and protect the company’s profits.
- Donations: Companies can donate to campaigns and candidates who support environmental policies they like.
- Comments: Regulations go through public comment periods, giving companies an opportunity to support or attack legislation based on their interests.
- Partnerships: Companies can increase their political influence on environmental policy by banding with other brands, industry coalitions or nonprofit advocacy groups.
- Public relations: Big brands can use advertising and media channels to shape public opinion about climate change and environmental policies. This can have an indirect influence on regulations.
The social and political influence big brands wield can be a force for environmental good or harm. Patagonia is one brand that is helping to combat climate change. It has taken steps like:
- Pledging 1% of its sales to environmental preservation and restoration.
- Committing to transparency about its ecological impact and publicly standing against greenwashing.
- Running PR and advertising campaigns that highlight environmental issues.
- Supporting grassroots climate activism and advocacy organizations.
- Lobbying for policy decisions, such as protections against neighborhood oil and gas drilling in California.
Of course, not all big brands use their political sway in such positive ways. ExxonMobil, one of the world’s leading contributors to carbon emissions, is also one of the most obstructive forces against environmental protection policies. The company has lobbied against ecological protections in its own capacity and as a member of the American Petroleum Institute (API) — the United States’ top lobby group for the fossil fuel industry.
Take Environmental Matters Into Your Own Hands
When big brands put pressure on consumers to be the solution to climate change, it’s worth remembering that these companies have a much larger impact on the problem than individuals do. Of course, your decisions matter and you have the power to help save the planet. Perhaps your greatest avenue for driving change is how you relate to these corporations.
Keep learning about climate issues and engaging in the conversation about what big brands do — and don’t do — for the planet. When you find accurate information about the good and bad actions of businesses impacting climate change, share it and have your say. Within the context of the options available to you, you could also consider how this information might affect your buying decisions. Informed consumers have an important role in keeping large companies environmentally accountable.
